Musharraf dragged into nuclear row

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Pakistan's controversial nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has told investigators that he helped North Korea design and equip facilities for making weapons-grade uranium with the knowledge of senior military commanders, including Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, according to a senior investigator.

Dr Khan has also told investigators that General Mirza Aslam Beg, the Pakistani army chief of staff from 1988 to 1991, was aware of assistance Dr Khan provided to Iran's nuclear program and that two other army chiefs, in addition to President Musharraf, knew and approved of his efforts on behalf of North Korea.

Dr Khan's assertions of high-level army involvement came in the course of a two-month investigation into allegations that he and other Pakistani nuclear scientists made millions of dollars from the sale of equipment and expertise to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

They contradict repeated contentions by President Musharraf and other senior officials that Dr Khan and at least one other scientist, Mohammed Farooq, acted out of greed and in violation of Government policy that bars the export of nuclear weapons technology.

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On the basis of Dr Khan's claims, General Beg and another former army chief of staff, General Jehangir Karamat, who occupied the post from 1996 to 1998, have been questioned by investigators in recent days. Both have denied any knowledge of the transactions, according to a senior Pakistani military officer.

General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, asserted that "General Pervez Musharraf neither authorised such transfers nor was involved in any way with such deeds, even before he was president".

Dr Khan and other senior scientists and officials at the Khan Research Laboratories, the uranium-enrichment facility Dr Khan founded in 1976, have been under investigation since November, when the International Atomic Energy Agency presented Pakistan with evidence that its centrifuge designs had turned up in Iran.

The 67-year-old flamboyant European-trained metallurgist became a national hero after the Pakistan detonated its first nuclear device in 1998.

A senior Pakistani military officer said at the weekend that Dr Khan had signed a 12-page confession on Friday in which he admitted to providing Iran, Libya and North Korea with technical assistance and components for making high-speed centrifuges used to produce enriched uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear bomb.

Lieutenant-General Khalid Kidwai, commander of Pakistan's Strategic Planning and Development Cell, described Dr Khan as the mastermind of an elaborate and unauthorised smuggling network.

He said the network involved chartered cargo flights, clandestine overseas meetings and a Malaysian factory that reconditioned centrifuge parts discarded from Pakistan's nuclear program for sale to foreign clients.

The technology transfers began in 1989 and were brokered by a network of middlemen, including three German businessmen and a Sri Lankan who is in custody in Malaysia.

The senior Pakistani investigator said on Monday that Dr Khan also said he supplied Iran and Libya with surplus outmoded equipment from the laboratory that he knew would not provide any near-term capability to enrich uranium.

"Dr Khan is basically contesting the merit of the nuclear proliferation charges," the investigator said. "Throughout his debriefing, Dr Khan kept challenging the perception that material found from the Libyan or Iranian programs would allow them to enrich uranium."

Investigators contend that Dr Khan accumulated millions of dollars in the course of a 30-year career as a government scientist.

General Kidwai said Dr Khan's lavish lifestyle was "the worst-kept secret in town" and should have triggered suspicions.